F 439 
.U7 U7 
Copy 1 



REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES 

■A p 



'/ 



#ak fah Cemeterj 



TO THE MAYOR AND TRUSTEES 



O 1' THE. 



COEPOEATION OF UEBANA, 



AND TO T H K 



TRUSTEES OF URBANA TOWNSHIP, 



ENCLOSINfi THE REPORT OF THE ENGINEER, MAPS, RULES, REGULATIONS, 
DEDICATORY SERVICES, AND THE 



ADDRESS OF REV. JAMES F. CHALFANT. 



URBAN A : 

PRINTED BY C. B. FLOOD 

1856. 



REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES 



#ali Mult €tmtltx^ 



TO THE MAYOR AND TRUSTEES 



OF THE 



COEPOEATION OF UEBANA, 



AND TO THE 



TRUSTEES OF URBANA TOWNSHIP, 



BNCLOSING THE REPORT OF THE ENGINEER, MAPS, RULES, REGULATIONS, 
DEDICATORY SERVICES, AND TliE 



ADDRESS OF REV. JAMES F. CHALFANT. 



f URBANA: 

PRl^TKD BY C. B. FLOOD 

1 85 G . 



I- 4-1^ 



REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES. 






To the Council of the Incorporated Village of Urbana, and the 
Trustees of Urbana Toicnship: 

The Trustees of ''Oak Dale Cemetery" here-^vith .^submit the 
following report of their prnceedings and acts in relation to the 
Cemetery Grounds committed to their care. 

Immediately after their appointment, (hey entered upon the dis- 
charge of the duties of their office, and have pursued their labors to 
the present time, with all the energy and zeal the means at their 
command would permit. When the grounds were first committed to 
our care, they were densely covered with a heavy growth of foi'est 
trees and underbrush. Great care and judgment were therefore 
requisite, in clearing the grounds, to divest it of nothing which 
might contribute to its beauty and ornament, and also in subdividing 
it into such convenient-sized lots as would be best suited to the varied 
wants of the community without marring the natural and beautiful 
surface of the grounds. The Trustees were fortunate in securing 
the services of J. Shoebridge Williams, Esq., an Engineer whose 
great experience and skill in his profession contributed very greatly 
to diminish their labor. His report, which is herewith submitted, 
contains a detailed statement of the progress and present condition 
of the work upon the ground. A, plat of the grounds is also here- 
with submitted. From these you will discover that the grounds are 
now ready for sepulture. And although much work yet remains to 
be done on the grounds, to carry out the original design, that can 
now be done without materially interfering with the burial of the 
dead. 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Trustees, 

LEMUEL WEAVER, President. 

W. .F MosGRovE, Secretary. 



REPORT OF THE ENGINEER. 



Contents. — Nothing Roconiuieiidud in a Spirit of Dictation — Suneys — Maps — Areas of 
Lots — Position of Stakes— How the Work was Done — System of Numbering— Unavoidable 
Anomalies — Location of Avenues, Ways, &c. — Location of Lots — Suitableness of Ground — 
Its Shape, Elevation, &c. — Grade of Avenues — Clearing — Trees Left — Thrift of Evergreeiis — 
No Danger to Monuments — Mapping Ornamental Grounds — Entrances to Them — Blunders 
Supposed — Soil of Oak Dale — Water of Spring Lake — Decomposed Animal Matter Rises — 
Distribution of First Purchases — A Part of Township Grounds — Distributio-n of Successive 
Interments — Condition of Long-Interred Remains — Present Grave Yard — What Urbana 
May Be — Sale of Township Ground — Mode of Selling Lots — Prices Increase Regularly — 
Different Modes of Sepulture — Family Vaults or Tombs — Desecration of Remains in 
Vaults — Receiving Vault or Tomb Necessary — Chapel — Bell — Funerals — Mode of Prevent- 
ing Premature Interments — Fencing the Grounds — Graveling Avenues — Drainage — Im- 
provement of Family Lots — How to Define the Limits of Lots Properly — Selfish Influence — 
Reservations — By-Laws— Register— Conelusion. 

Urbana, 0., July 3, 1856. 
To the Trustees of Oak Dale Cemetery: 

Gentlemen — The operations by you confided to my care, as 
Cemetery Engineer, have so far progressed as to render it proper 
that I should make a full and detailed report upon them, with some 
intimation of my views of the present state of the Cemetery, and of 
the best future policy to be adopted in its progress and government. 
In respect to this last remark, I bespeak your particular observance, 
that, however freely and confidently I may express my opinion, no- 
thing will be so expressed in a spirit of dictation, but merely as sug- 
gestions, to pass with you for no more than yourselves may conceive 
to be their value. 

The surveys, as you know, were commenced on the 10th of No- 
vember last. They, with work appertaining to them, have been as- 
siduously continued from day to day, Sundays excepted, without 
the intermission of a single day. 

The ground has been laid off in sixty-four quadrangular sections, 
one only excepted, and they have been subdivided into 1,768 
burial lots, of such a great variety of shapes and sizes, as will likely 



REPORT OF^ ENGINEER. 

he sufficient to meet the demands of all the varied necessities, abili- 
ties, and taste of lot-purchasers ; and every one of them is accessible 
by avenues, of twenty-four feet in breadth, ways of fifteen feet, lanes 
of ten feet, or allies of five feet in width. These sections and lots 
have each been furnished with a large stake, well driven in one cor- 
ner, having been made of such a shape as to designate which corner 
they are in. Upon these stakes, in very legible inch figures, the re- 
spective number of every section and lot was previously branded. 

A map of the whole ground, and of every avenue, way, lane, alley, 
vista, section, and lot, upon a small scale, giving a satisfactory and 
full view of the whole, is herewith presented. A portfolio of maps 
of each section, with the lots thereon, embracing a skeleton vicinity of 
each, the location of avenues, &c., upon a large scale, intended for 
the use of your Secretary, is also presented. A book of canvased 
charts of every section, with skeleton vicinities, upon a smaller scale, 
intended for the use of your Superintendent on the ground, is also 
herewith presented. The maps of both the portfolio and the charts 
comprise not only the avenues, ways, lanes, alleys, vistas, and 
lots, embraced by each section, but also the length of every line, the 
position of every stake, amounting to thousands in the aggregate, 
and also the number of every lot, with its area in square feet, each 
and all unmistakeably conspicuous, in ink of different colors. To the 
above may be added a map of the Avhole, comprising six sheets, 
which may be of some service, as it contains, like the other maps, 
the shapes of lots, localities of avenues, ways, &c., with the length 
of lines, numbers of lots, positions of stakes, &c. It is, however, 
but a rough sketch, the aggregate of continued daily, or better said, 
nightly test plattings of field notes, as the operations proceeded, and 
is tolerably accurate. It may be said to lack nothing material of the 
portfolio and charts but the superficial areas of the lots. 

To say that the entire work has been done under my personal su- 
pervision, is scarcely enough. To say that it has been done by my 
individual hands, might not be consididered very hyperbolical, when 
I remind you that, by reference to your Secretaries' accounts, you 
will find that all the assistance I have wished for or received, has not 
cost yoji_thirteen dollars, as I preferred driving stakes myself, to the 
presence of any mental disturbance in laying out the lots, alleys, &c. 
I except, in relation to the cost above, the making of stakes, the 



G OAK DALE CEMETERY. 

branding and driving of the 1,832 stakes, done under my own eye, 
and by my personal directions. I except, also, the magnetic survey 
of the outside boundary lines, done before I came to the ground. 
I therefore feel responsible in respect to the accuracy or inaccuracy 
of the whole Avork of laying out, mapping, &c., except, as above 
the outside lines, of which I have no right to complain. 

Placing yourselves in front of, or on the north of the Cemetery, 
or of the various maps and charts, you will observe that the numeral 
order of the sections is arranged in columns, as in a newspaper, and 
as in it, these columns commence on the left, and proceed toward the 
right. That in each section the numeral order of the lots, unless 
necessarily made to deviate, read from left to right and from top to 
bottom, as lines in a column. You may observe, also, that the de- 
signating monument or stake of each section, is invariabl]/ jAaced in 
the lower left-hand or northeast corner of the sections, while those 
of the lots generally are to be found in the upper left-hand or sowiA- 
east corners respectively, unless controlled by more important con- 
siderations. It is easy to understand that facing lots toward contin- 
ually winding and various avenues, ways, &c., will carry them out of 
their cardinal positions, and render it impracticable to make the lot 
lines all correspond with the cardinal sides of the sections, and that 
some lots lie necessarily in part or wholly outside of tlie regular 
bounds of the sections in which they are enumerated. It was found 
best, by local considerations, not invariably to place the designating 
stakes in the southeast corners of the lots ; but as the facts on the 
ground, and their representations on the maps, are believed to agree 
perfectly in these particulars, no serious detriment need be appre- 
hended to arise from those anomalies. 

In respect to the manner in which the work has been executed, 
after the many expressions of the entire satisfaction you have coUec- 
(ivel)'^ and individually made, as the work progressed, I need make 
these general observations only. The avenues have been laid in the 
lowest and lower grounds generally. That designated as Urbana 
Avenue is, throughout its entire length, along the principal water 
course which divides your grounds so equally and so beautifully ; 
and, for the conveyance of water, three feet have been, on each side, 
added to its width. Township Avenue was laid on the line dividing 
the township from the corporation grounds. The other aA^enues, 



REPORT OF ENGINEER. 7 

with small and necessary exceptions, were laid in branch ravines or 
depressions. With few necessary variations, the avenues are all 
composed of long and graceful curvilinear lines or sweeps, that, if 
well followed, will add much beauty to your grounds. The vistas 
have been laid so as to afford pleasing, but contracted views of dis- 
tant parts, in and outside of the grounds. Where these pass over or 
near individual or society lots, they will add much to the beauty of 
the locality, without any sort of detriment, excepting the care and 
control of the Trustees, necessary to prevent visual obstructions, be 
counted such. Great care has also been taken to render every part 
conveniently accessible to hearses, by lanes, if by no wider passages, 
and every lot approachable by alleys, to prevent all necessary intru- 
sions on private property, as the maps conspicuously show. 

The larger lots have been, almost without exceptions, laid fronting 
upon avenues, ways and lanes, lower than they, from which they 
rise from front to rear, so as, in the most graceful manner, to present 
advantageous views of monuments and other ornamental improve- 
ments on them, to passing visitors. A chapel, to accomodate funeral 
services, with a capacious receiving vault or tomb for temporary de- 
posits under it, has been projected and located in a spot of rare 
relative beauty, and of singular appropriateness for such a combined 
structure, and the grounds in the vicinity laid out in reference to it; 
In the yards of these structures, have been laid systems of small 
lots, to accommodate cenotaph monuments, and mural tablets, com- 
memorating the existence and virtues of the distant deceased, either 
as to time or space. Those, for instance, who died long ago, at sea, 
in distant lands, or otherwise, rendering the interment of their re- 
mains in Oak Dale impracticable. These lots, though small, are 
large enough to be disposed of for such purposes, in halves or quar- 
ters if necessary, and when thus improved, will render your chapel 
grounds, historically considered, the most interesting point in the 
Cemetery. 

It has been conceded by many, if not by all, who have visited 
these grounds, since my acquaintance with them, that a better selec- 
tion for, and location of a Cemetery, could not be made in Cham- 
paign county ; and I may add my testimony, that after having visited 
the most celebrated Cemeteries from Maine to the District of Colum- 
bia, and including both, and some of them frequently, as well as 



8 OAK DALE CEMETERY. 

those of the West, I know of no spot, selected or unselected, that I 
consider, either in natural shape of surface or quality of soil, supe- 
rior for the purposes of sepulture. And when we add to this its ac- 
cessibility from Urbana, by a level road of scarcely one mile, cross- 
ing neither railway nor other traveled road, the choice may be con- 
sidered truly felicitous. 

It is needless to tell you that the ground is beautifully rolling and 
undulating ; but it may not be amiss just to say that, by not very, 
but sufficiently precise levelings, it has been ascertained that the 
Chapel floor will be twenty-two feet above a base mark instituted at 
South entrance on the lowest point of ground, six feet above the 
water of Spring Lake. Reference being had to base mark, the ele- 
vation of South entrance is found to be plus 28, or 6 feet higher than 
the Chapel floor. The northeast corner, or section 7, is the highest 
part of the Cemetery — being ^^Zws 32. Lots 7 and 8 of section 59, 
1 and 2 of section 4, 4 and 5 of section 5, and most of section 8, are 
all about 30 plus. Kenton square, 27. Lot 27, in section 55, is 25. 
Poet's Bower, 24; 10 and 11, in section 28, are 22 plus. No. 1 in 
sections 42 and 49 are 18, and 1 and 4 in section 56 are I'iplus. These 
are all prominences, mostly with depressions or valleys between them. 

The ascent of Urbana Avenue from base mark is about one-half of 
one degree, with little variation. That of other avenues will be 
steeper, but all gentle slopes. If we except the descent of Town- 
ship into Urbana Avenue, not over three degrees for a few poles. 
Chapel Avenue will be the steepest in the ground, which, for two- 
thirds of its length, will be nearly, but not exceeding, two degrees of 
ascent toward South entrance. The avenues, and some of the vistas, 
are grubbed out and cleared of wood ; but they and the whole 
ground are as yet otherwise in their unimproved and naturally rough 
state, incidental to forest land, but which approaches as near to a 
high degeee of graduation as can be found any where in wood land. 

The Superintendent of the clearing and grubbing operations has, 
agreeably to your order, trimmed all the trees twenty feet up from 
the ground, grubbed out and disposed of all the largest, most of the 
larger and much of the smaller growth, and burnt the chips, brush 
and leaves. This was done by your request, under my general su- 
pervision and counsel. We left many or most of the smaller and 
some of the larger trees standing, all which we believe to be sound 
and thrifty. They are ornamental as well as useful ; but as some, if 



REPORT (JF ENGINEER. 9 

not most of the good folks of Urbana think, as I understand, that wc 
have left too many, I beg leave to dilate a little upon that subject 
here. 

Our reasons for leaving those we have left, were in part to save 
present time and expense — both pressing considerations just now — 
and because in doubtful cases we thought it would be easier hereafter 
to displace a score of trees that might be found to be cumbersome 
and useless, than to replace one that might be needed, and had been 
removed. Because, also, experience shows that evergreens, which 
we hope will be abundantly introduced, will not flourish well, espe- 
cially in gravelly soils, unless they be protected from the effects of 
hot sunshine. The natural thrift of evergreens is either in thick 
clusters, wherein they shade each other, or under the shadows of 
clifts or deciduous trees. We have no doubt but the superior growth 
of our worthy President's evergreen shrubbery, over that of the 
yard of his next-door neighbor, is mainly, if not entirely, owing to the 
protection afforded to them by his mansion standing south of them, 
and the apple trees among which they were introduced. 

Evergreens cannot thrive with their roots enveloped in hot soil, 
and to prevent this, they instinctively shoot out limbs close to the 
ground for the purpose of protection, as little barefoot girls have been 
seen to spread their aprons over their feet in the scorching rays of a 
summer's sun, and we could have wept when we have seen the Van- 
dal hands of ignorance depriving those instinctive, interesting, help- 
less beauties of their self-provided protections, without the furnish- 
ing of any other. A good layer of tangled straw, weighted down 
with small stones, over their tender, but sensitive fibrils, is about the 
best. To which, when small, in hot weather, in day time, add head- 
less barrels, to shade their tops. 

We left more of the natural growth upon your grounds, under the 
conviction that a few months of experience and proper consideration 
of what is really ornamental and necessary, will do much to convince 
the doubtful, that, with further and necessary trimming and topping, 
there has been no superabundance left. Some seem, by what they 
say, to fear that monuments will be destroyed by falling trees ; but, 
really, it is hard to believe them to be otherwise than ironically 
joking others respecting the whole matter. If such fears really exist, 
they might subside at least till monuments are there, and shown to 



10 OAK DALE CEMETERY. 

be in danger, winch is the course pursed in other Cemeteries. The 
largest trees are, at any time, by machinery, easily controlled in any 
precise direction, and just when and where desired. In Oak Dale, 
however, there are scarce a dozen Jrees that could injure a good 
monument by falling on it, otherwise than merely tumbling it over, 
even could we suppose the almost unsupposable concatenation of cir- 
cumstances necessary to cause one to be touched by a falUng tree, 
and that it is common to see young oaks, hickories, and sassa- 
fras, all healthy, blown over by a storm that might arise. It is more 
easy to conceive of monuments themselves overturned, than saplings 
uprooted by a storm. We recommend those who are the most confi- 
dent that we are wrong in this, to take a trip to the best Cemeteries 
of the Atlantic cities, and see the trees permitted — jes, encouraged — 
to grow in them, as Avell as in the best in the West ; or, in defa\ilt of 
such a trip, get a very useful work. Greenwood and Mount Auburn 
Illustrated, and see the thick groves of trees far outmeasuring ours, 
represented on the finest steel engravings. 

One word here on laying out and mapping ornamental grounds in 
general, and this Cemetery in particular. Whenever localities will 
admit of it, the principal entrance to ornamental grounds and rural 
Cemeteries should be at the lowest point, so that visitors may, on 
entering, be saluted by the elevation of grounds above them. That 
entrance should be in front of the grounds, of course, but not in the 
center of the boundary, nor directly opposed to the most conspicuous 
object in it, unless that object be Avholly or in great part excluded by 
intervening obstacles, but, if convenient, at the right hand corner, or 
near it, rather than at the left, for few people of correct taste like to 
enter an enclosure directly in the front gaze of the inmates of a fine 
mansion, or public resort. Visitors prefer also to have such objects 
to their right rather than on their left, as they approach. 

The front boundary should also be more picturesque or varied than 
the back, if the back be at all in view. The front should bind oli an 
open ground, and not on forest, if possible ; that is, the front of the 
picture should be the most conspicuous to public and outside obser- 
vation, and should occupy one of the longest sides of the plat, if 
boundaries are visible. The principal ornaments should be placed in 
the front of ornamented grounds, and not at the back of lar^e enclo- 
sures, where they cannot be seen at all, or with great difficulty, and 



REPORT OF ENGINEER. 11 

indistinctly. To fill each, all, and every one of these rare accom- 
plishmenst, Oak Dale is qualified in a most remarkable degree. 
The principal entrance will be at the lowest point, and at the right- 
hand corner, supposing the ground to front the cleared land and 
turnpike to the north of it, and with an unsurpassed foreground of 
slopes and trees. It will also be an exit from the grounds exactly 
toward Urbana, and in full view of it, say at a mile of distance. No 
locality could combine more of the requisites of a high improve- 
ment. 

To make the soundness of the above landscape doctrine a little 
more conspicuous, let us look for a moment at the picture reversed. 
Suppose the south side, instead of the north, were conceived to be 
the front of the ground. The principal entrance would in that case 
be at the left-hand corner of the hack of the Cemetery! Urbana, 
the open ground and the turnpike, would then all be back of the 
ground, and dense forest bounding the entire front ! ! The most pic- 
turesque ground, as well as boundary, would then have been back of 
the ground, and the most monotonous ground and boundary in front. 
The Township ground, with its more monotonous surface and system 
of lots, and more sparing ornaments, would be in front of the ground, 
and the corporation grounds, with their adjuncts, their monuments, 
their chapel, cenotaphs, and Spring Lake, would be back in the rear ! 
The south entrance in this case, would truly be at one corner of the 
front, but to the left and not to the right of it. Look on this picture, 
then on that. 

What, then, would be the duty of any competent Engineer, in lay- 
ing out this ground ? Should he place the ground on his maps as 
facing the spectator who might stand on the north of it, or on the 
south of it 1 On the north of it, surely ; for the maps will control 
the ideal direction of the ground eventually, in spite of every other 
circumstance. Who but a mere novice ever thought of taking a stand 
on the back of a landscape to make a drawing of it or to view it ? 
Who ever, but such as know little or nothing of laying out ornamental 
grounds, would ever have conceived that Oak Dale should have been 
mapped with its North boundary at the top of the maps, in compli- 
ance with school -boys' first lessons, to plat farms and wood-lands in 
that way ? We confidently say, none. 

An interment (the first) in Oak Dale, on 15th ultimo, was made 



12 OAK DALE CEMETERY. 

on section 39, lot 27, near Vista Way, and on very nearly the highest 
ground in tlie vicinity, say plus 22 feet. The grave was dug to the 
depth of six feet, through gravelly loam into a stratum of sand and 
gravel. Many experiments made and indications observed, testify 
this to be the almost invariable character of the ground. It is ad- 
mirable and preferable in the minds of almost every one for the pur- 
poses of interment in the free soil. Little or no apprehension need 
be entertained, under a system of proper dressing, that one drop of 
water will ever reach any remains deposited in Oak Dale. Water is 
often &, great preserver of animal matter under ground, depriving it of 
its oils and gases, protecting it from the action of the atmosphere, 
and rendering it adipose and almost indestructible in its watery, soak- 
ing abodes ! To prevent this, as well as premature interments, the 
horrors of a dissecting room, and the real or supposed unhealthines s 
of grave-yards, some advocate the burning of the bodies of their de- 
ceased friends, as being preferable to the real or imaginary dread of 
circumstances of ordinary sepulture. With the proper care and atten- 
tion of your Board, of the officers of the Cemetery, and the friends 
of the deceased buried in the free soil of Oak Dale, such fears may 
at once subside. This is one inestimable privilege which may result 
to this town and township from your laudable enterprise. 

It has been feared that the excellently fine water of Spring Lake, 
that is presumed, in a gravelly stratum, to underlie the entire Cemetery, 
will be injured, at least for drinking purposes, by numerous interments 
in the free soil above it. In respect to this important consideration, I 
beg leave to offer a few observations and suggestions. It is hard to 
conceive of the method or circumstances that could materially injure 
such a reservoir of spring water, which, as you know, propels heavy 
machinery all seasons of the year in town, and within half a mile of 
the first day -light appearance of it. But then, as this may not satisfy 
doubtful minds in respect to the water of Spring Lake, in which they 
may be more particularly and personally interested, we will observe 
further — 

It has been found, says Loudon, that " six feet of earth will absorb 
the whole decaying substance of a human body," or words to that 
eflfect. Let it be considered, then, that animal matter, decomposed 
under ground, and absorbed by the earth, must and will inevitably 
rise to the surface, tending invariably upward, and not downward. 



REPORT OF ENGINEER. 13 

The atmosphere is the natural depository of all such things as 
nourish vegetation. Odors of all kinds, even rising from manures, 
testify this ; and that they rise in and from the earth, the disagree- 
able smells of badly managed grave-yards, and the frequent appear- 
ance of ignis fatuii about them, positively prove. Unless streams 
of water, running or soaking down through the earth, actually carry 
decayed animal matter with them, you cannot find animal decompo- 
sitions descending through the earth. Even water itself is in the 
constant effort of rising from the interior to the surface of the earth, 
where it takes its flight in the atmosphere, to fall in dews and show- 
ers on distant lands. The heaving up of frost under leaves in the 
woods, and all evaporation from the surface of the earth and seas, 
prove the tendency of water to mount and fly, carrying vegetable 
nourishment with it everywhere. No fears need be entertained that 
one particle of the remains of any well dressed grave, will ever pene- 
trate downwards half the distance of six feet below those of any 
single body, much less that they will ever touch, still less injure, the 
water of Spring Lake. The fine water at the entrance of Greenwood, 
New York, has not, I understand, been injured one iota, by the in- 
terment of the tens of thousands of bodies, and all on a higher 
level. 

But to render security doubly sure, in this respect, as well as 
greatly to benefit the Cemetery in respect of healthiness of 
atmosphere, and diffusion of ornaments, I most seriously re- 
commend to lot buyers to distribute their first purchases as far 
throughout the entire ground offered, as may at all comport with 
their views of convenience. Then, in order to render their own par- 
ticular lots more healthy and pleasant, as places of rural retirement 
and meditation, let them make each successive interment as far from 
the next preceding, as their space and sense of propriety will admit. 
It will be from quickly successive deposits of bodies subject to putre- 
faction, in close juxtaposition only, that any fears of injuring the soil, 
the water or the atmosphere of the Cemetery, need be apprehended. 
Large accumulations of putrid matter must penetrate proportionably 
far in every direction from the source of it. 

In this connection, I ask you to set apart a certain and reasonably 
large portion of the township grounds, for present single and chari- 
table interments, and by an order, cause the first interment to be 



14 OAK DALE CEMETERY. 

made in a designated corner, or other part of one lot, designated by 
its number, then let the second interment be in the same part of the 
lot with the same number, in the next section ; then the third inter- 
ment in like part of the third section, and so on, until every section 
in the part upon which such interments are allowed to be made, 
has in it one interment. Then let the next interment take place in 
another part of the same lot with the first interment, and as far from 
it as the bounds of the lot and the interments on contiguous lots will 
admit, so as to diffuse the graves as nearly equi-distant over the 
whole ground as circumstances will admit. By pursuing this method, 
before it will be necessary to place interments within the influence of 
each other, the decomposable matter of the first interred bodies will 
have been blown to the winds, and coffin may be laid alongside of 
coffin, requiring but twelve instead of about double that number of 
square feet each, which is usually allowed for adult interments, and 
grave digging be much less laborious. 

I have exhumed remains from dry graves, that I am sensible not 
a drop of water had ever touched during the sixteen or seventeen 
years they had lain there. There was not the least perceptibly dis- 
agreeable smell in the graves, or about the remains, although buried 
in progressive rows in the Friends' style, about the worst that could 
be adopted. How long these subjects had been reft of putrid matter, 
I know not ; but I exhumed from a dry vault a subject at nine years, 
in much the same condition. The hair on these remains was all as 
sound, and of the same color precisely, as that retained by the rela- 
tives at death ! The bones were in appearance and texture much 
like skeleton limestone from which all the caustic and phosphorescent 
qualities of the lime had departed, and in confirmation of Mr. Lou- 
don's opinion, as indestructible. I see no reason to doubt this, as 
the bones are the rocks of the body, and doubtless very similar in 
their uses and purposes to those of the earth. 

"With such precautionary regulations, and with graves well dressed, 
as decency and health dictate, there will not be one-tenth of the dan- 
ger that the water of Spring Lake will ever receive one particle of 
the remains deposited above it, as there is that the water in the wells 
of Urbana has been, and in some degree continue to be, affected by 
drainage of the sunken graves in the present grave -yard in town, 
from which not a drop of water can run off, but all that falls must 



REPORT OF ENGINEER. 15 

sink into the sunken graves, and running successively through the 
remains below, inevitably carries their putrid substances wherever 
it goes. Here is the danger of ill health and wide-spread nuisance, 
as the consequence of crowding interments into compact groups, and 
by quick successions, so that the soil cannot free itself of its pestifer- 
ous burthen, and then by neglecting graves till they become sink- 
holes, which render all slopes of surface useless as a means of 
draining the grounds. ■ 

Although I am not a citizen of Champaign county, and of course 
what I might say on the subject might be considered gratuitous and 
out of place, yet, on the score of the interest I feel in the welfare of 
common humanity, if on no other, allow me merely to suggest the 
early removal of all the remains in the present crowded grave-yard 
to more roomy quarters, and that the ground they now occupy be 
graded, shaded, grassed, and otherwise ornamented, as a public, a 
convenient, healthy, well governed and necessary promenade. That 
done, Oak Dale properly cared for, your fine groves, your rich and 
beautiful alluvial plains and your mineral waters properly noticed, 
and some other evidently necessary improvements made, together 
with your rapid elevation of schools of learning, and I could truly 
say, I know of no city, town or village, East or West, North or 
South, in which it would be more pleasant to live, or at which it 
woidd be more desirable to die, than Urbana. 

In conection with the utility of a wide distribution of closely suc- 
cessive interments, and also to accommodate those of small means, 
or having penurious minds, with as good ground for the interment of 
their families, as their more favored or lofty-minded neighbors can 
dare to boast of, I suggest that you set apart sections one, eight, fif- 
teen, sixteen, twenty-two, twenty-three, thirty and sixty-four, for 
present interments on the Township grounds, reserving the entire 
balance for a beautiful and health-inspiring grove without graves until 
actually needed for sepulture. And further, that for the benefit of 
the township, and improvement of its grounds, as well as the good 
keeping and repair of the same, let me advise the sale, at a low price, 
of every alternate lot in the seven sections first enumerated, and 
under the restrictions that the first purchaser should take lot one or 
two in section one ; the second purchaser to take lot one or two in 
section eight, and so on, till one lot be sold in each of the seven sec- 



IG OAK DALE CEMETERY. 

tious. Then begin again disposing of lot three or four in section one, 
and thus go over and over the seven sections with your sales, until 
every alternate lot in the seven sections be sold. Section 64, agree- 
ably to the original design, should be at the disposal of the Coroner, 
in the interment of subjects by deaths from accidents, violence, and 
causes unknown, and he should be restricted to the laying of his sub- 
jects one in each lot, in the order of their numbers, until all the forty 
lots were occupied by one ; and then the second in each lot at the 
greatest distance from other graves, &c., &c. Appropriate the re- 
maining alternate lots in the seven sections, from which you sell fam- 
ily lots, to the uses of the overseers of the poor, excepting one lot in 
each section, to be sold very low, by single graves, but in the suc- 
cessive order of the first sale, the first interment being on section one, 
and so on through. The overseers of the poor, also, to make the 
first of their charitable interments in a certain lot on section one, 
their second on section two, &c., &c. 

In accordance with the wise suggestions and practice of John W. 
Van Cleve,Esc[.,founder and Superintendent of the Dayton Cemetery — 
who, to distribute them, appropriates one lot to single interments and 
fills it, then appropriates another — I suggest that you improve his 
method by now setting apart lot number ten, or any other, the same 
number of lot in every section in the corporation grounds to be sold 
out by single graves. By appropriating a lot with a certain number 
in each section at once for that purpose, you avoid every suspicion of 
partiality in favor of classes and kinds of interments, and by distrib- 
uting single interments all over the ground, one in each section first, 
&c., you not only prevent the necessary, injurious consequences of 
crowded fresh interments, but you prevent (which is the aim of Mr. 
Van Cleve) appearance of partiality and the existence of large un- 
broken spaces, without ornament, clothed with a tiresome, monoto- 
nous appearance, the greatest blemishes of most, if not all, our 
otherwise best and most ornamented Cemeteries. A consummation 
devoutly to be wished. 

Of the manner of selling lots in Oak Dale, and the prices at which 
it will be right to sell them, being clearly out of the engineering 
range, but as you request me to leave with you as much information 
and facilities of progress as I can, I shall say a little on that subject, 
to inform you what I know of the customs of Cemetery Trustees in 



REPORT OF ENGINEER. 17 

other places. In some of the best Cemeteries, the price of the ground 
is made to vary, somewhat, with the locality, the proximity to car- 
riage ways, goodness of soil, beauty of shape, <fec. This difiference 
seems to be reasonable, and if not too troublesome, would be produc- 
tive of one good result — that of being more likely to induce pur- 
chasers to disseminate their purchases more widely over the ground. 
As to difference in the goodness of the soil, I think it is unlikely to 
be much. Other Cemeteries, equally fine and well improved, throw 
their whole grounds open to the choice of purchasers at the same 
price per square foot. 

Whatever price or method be adopted at first sales in Cemeteries, 
it is a universal practice among them, I believe, to place an annual 
increase upon the previous year's price, about equal to the interest of 
the money previously asked. This is strict justice to first purchasers, 
whose labor and means have been spent in improving and ornament- 
ing the grounds, thereby rendering the whole more valuable. It is 
also due to the progress of improvements to divest in this way the 
possessor of means of the inducement to keep it for his own use, 
while the improvement of the Cemetery requires it, for his own ulti- 
mate benefit, as well as that of others. The Cemetery is a goal at 
which he, as well as first purchasers, must and will arrive, sooner or 
later, how far soever he or they may in idea put the day off. 

I have heard that you propose selling at five cents per square foot. 
If that be so, it is less than half the lowest price I now recollect, except 
to the first subscribers at Spring Grove, where the ground sells now 
at four times that price. If the first purchases in Oak Dale can be 
had at five cents per foot, the community could well bear for you to 
increase it eight, ten, or even twelve per centum per annum. In 
some of the Eastern, and one or two of the Western, forty or fifty 
cents per foot is not considered a high price for fine lots in desirable 
situations. Thirty to forty cents per foot is very common, I hear. 

Of the diflferent modes of sepulture, it may be well to observe, gen- 
erally, that those methods which, in the shortest time, admit of the 
entire decomposition of the muscular and the membranous fibres of 
subjects, without artificial aids, (which are all disgusting,) ought, by 
all means, to be preferred, and are gaining favor rapidly with the wise 
and considerate of society. Hence, except in particular cases, inter- 
ments in neat wooden coffins, lowered into wooden boxes previously 
2 



18 OAIv DALE CK.METHRY. 

placed in the graves that are sunk into the free soil to no unreason- 
able depth, are, above all other modes, preferable ; and especially so 
to all metallic structures, brick vaults in graves, sealed catacombs in 
vaults, &c. — preferable because of the detriment or hindrance 
they impose on the dispersion of the substances of human flesh. 
These detriments aie, however, less than is usually thought. 
Animal matter contains the materials from which great outward 
pressure may emanate, and the fuel to feed the combustion, to 
set that power in action. It is, therefore, most difficult to con- 
fine decomposed animal matter, much more so than the makers 
of cases intended for it might lead the credulous to suppose. Still, 
it is our duty to the deceased, as well as the sur\'ivors, to place 
few and small impediments in the way of the free operation of Na- 
ture's laws, which always operate for good if not thwarted. Who 
would wish their bodies to become dry mummies, to be split up for 
fuel in years and generations future, or lie, as adipocre, soaking for 
years, in a cheerless grave, or, worse than all, to be enveloped and 
entirely submerged in its own filth, putrefaction and stench, in a 
dark, confined burial case, from which, could it be seen by their 
friends, as I have seen it, they would shrink with horror ? Better rise 
in the sweet free soil, and nourish beautiful lilies, pinks and roses. 

Upon the subject of family vaults in general, I call your serious 
attention to a circular issued by the Trustees of the Mount Auburn 
Cemetery, with the late lamented Judge Story at their head. It was 
circulated several years ago, dissuading all lot owners from their con- 
struction, as cumbrous, loathsome nuisances, and was brought forward 
and published with renewed earnestness last year, and the additional 
price of fifty dollars for every lot of 300 square feet, or 16| cents more 
per square foot,_^if wanted for a family vault, than if Avanted for in- 
terments in the free soil ! Doubtless Henry M. Parker, Esq., 46 
Washington street, Boston, would, with singular pleasure, furnish you 
with last year's catalogue of proprietors in the Cemetery of Mount 
Auburn, with an appendix containing it and other matter interesting 
to you. It is clearly opposed to the vaults as above ; also iu respect 
to the desecration of tombs, which they say are no safe abiding place 
for the remains in them, because succeeding generations will clear 
them out for their own use. In relation to this, I may say I was 
told when East, that the undertakers watch when tombs cease to 



RETORT OF ENGINEER. 19 

be visited by the owners of them, by reason of their death, removal, 
or other causes, when they immediately clear them of all that re- 
mains in them, and then have plenty of vault room for new deposits 
at high prices, for their individual aggrandizement. 

A receiving vault or tomb, for temporary deposits, is an indispen- 
sable requisite in all respectable Cemeteries. I have said that yours 
was planned to be under your Chapel. The plan favored by the 
illustrious late John C. Loudon, that of slowly and solemnly letting 
the coffin and subject by machinery from the Chapel down into the 
vault, when that is their destination, after the funeral services, has 
been approved by you ; but as some minds entertain fears that such 
a juxtaposition of Chapel and vault, with such a communication be- 
tween them, though closed when not in use, would render the Cha- 
pel disagreeable and unfit to celebrate funeral services in, I shall en- 
deavor in a few words to dissipate them. 

The door of the vault is intended to be westward, and nearly on a 
level with Chapel Avenue opposite to it. The whole structure will 
stand in the bank, with its door and part of its front wall only ex- 
posed to the outer air. These should be respectably tight. The 
front of the Chapel is intended to face the rising sun, with its fioor a 
little raised above the beautiful ground surroundinof three sides of it. 
In connection with the two front corners of the Chapel, for use and 
beauty of design, it is proposed to build two castellate or other orna- 
mental towers, rising 30 or 40 feet above the Chapel floor. One of 
these, the northeast, to accommodate a bell ; and the other, the 
southeast, to be a mere flue or chimney, connecting with the vault 
below. This tower, especially in warm weather, would act as a 
chimney, and by its draft would take every offensive particle from 
the vault below, and deliver it out of harm's way in its natural des- 
tination, the upper atmosphere. The vacancy in the vaults would be 
filled with pure air from the Chapel above. Thus your vault might, 
at all times, be as sweet as a parlor, and your Chapel well ventilated 
and healthy by the same operation. In the winter, too, the same 
tower might serve the purposes of a chimney, to warm the Chapel, 
if necessary. If it could at all be supposed that such a tower would 
not have sufficient force of draft in damp, murky weather, let a few 
bars be laid across the flue in it, accessible by a very tight door. On 
these bars let chips, shavings or brush be kindled, and the door 



20 OAK 1>ALK CEMETERY. 

closed, and the vault would be immediately cleared. Thus may be 
combined convenience, cleanliness, health and beauty of ornament, 
for one tithe of the cost of the cheapest plan mentioned by Mr. 
Loudon. Drawings of the Chapel, the towers, flue, grating, &c., 
with explanations of the necessary lowering machines, are herewith 
presented. 

A bell was mentioned. That would seem to be an almost indis- 
pensable requisite of any good Cemetery. It would be almost 
shocking to anticipate the lasting necessary dependence of those 
beautiful slopes for solemn knells upon the bells in town. The bell 
should be pitched on E J or B b, and sufficiently large to be heard 
distinctly two or three miles. The bell should be hung near its center 
of gravity, so as easily to turn over, and not imder, that it may be 
arrested, receive the stroke, and remain in a horizontal position du- 
ring an entire interval of say 30 seconds. The clapper should be 
furnished with recoiling springs, to prevent its jingle against the 
lower side of the bell's mouth. Drawings of these fixtures are pre- 
sented. 

I mentioned the subject of premature interments, a thought at 
which even the base and depraved shudder. And who knows but 
that he or she may be a subject of its horrors ? I cannot pass this 
opportunity without endeavoring to lessen, if not entirely do away 
all danger of such an awful occurrence in Oak Dale. I there- 
fore, among others, present drawings of a plan by which the least 
motion, in either the head or hands of any one of any number of 
subjects left in the Chapel or vault, will cause an alarm of any de- 
sired force to be sounded on the bell in the tower. One person saved 
in one, or in ten centuries, would be worth more than all the cost. 
Let all be done that can be done to rid sepulture of its gloom and 
horrors, and the living and the dying, the healthy and the sickly, 
will begin to make it more and more a subject of contemplation. 
Superstition will vanish, thoughtlessness will diminish, the dread of 
death will be in a measure dissipated, and the race will have more 
time for free and unrestrained devotion which alone improves the 
heart. 

In regard to permanently fencing the ground, it may not be amiss 
to mention that hedging for an outside defense is yet a mode of 
doubtful utility in this country, especially in woodland, as much of 



REPORT OK ENGINEER. 21 

yours must necessarily be. All sorts of wooden fencing in shade 
you will find but temporary in usefulness. Stone would be very ex- 
pensive with you, and hence a good fence, such as all Cemeteries 
ought by all means to have, presents to you one of the greatest, if 
not the very greatest, diflBiculties you will have to surmount. The 
kind you are now putting iip, composed of tapering pickets, is as 
good as any you can now command, and will last until new modes 
may be presented, or some of the old ones improved, so that you can 
consistently make choice of one better than now. 

As I have more experience in road-making than perhaps any other 
man in the country, it might be reasonably expected that I ghould not 
leave you without a few words on the improvement of your avenues. 
Were they to be roads for wagons, loaded with four to six tons, or 
bridges with fifty to two hundred feet span, as the Maysville and other 
roads of my building have, I should then feel fully competent and at 
home ; but upon your miniature turnpikes, I confess I hardly know 
Avhat to say. Certain I am, however, that you have plenty of the 
finest material to make them, or even the heaviest turnpike, and much 
I believe sufficiently clear of sand and loam to sustain the travel of 
your Cemetery without screening. In your contemplated and sur- 
veyed excavation of Spring Lake, (a drawing of which I leave with 
you,) you will remove three feet of gravelly loam very suitable for 
the bed of your road. Then, in deepening the lake, you will get 
gravel clear enough for the upper face, laid four to six inches thick on 
a bed of the first eight or nine inches in thickness. Fine materials 
abound ; but the difficulty is, cut where you may, you are deranging 
handsome surface, that must be restored, or the beauty of the ground 
will be marred. 

In respect to drainage, very little will be needed. The soil of Oak 
Dale is so pervious that rains soon evaporate, leaving it pleasant and 
dry aijain. In the bottom of the main stream I have seen water enter 
a hole in considerable quantities, and disappear. A few excavations 
on each side of Urbana Avenue, filled with coarse gravel, will, in my 
opinion, let all the water of the Cemetery disappear into the gravel 
beneath. 

A few words respecting the improvement of family lots, may not be 
out of place here. A good landscape gardener would say, "Near the 
back of your lot, on a foundation laid as deep as the graves near by are 



22 OAK DALE CEMETERY. 

dug, place your principal monument, of any varied size or shapes, ex- 
cepting successive and disgusting imitations of others. Let your monu- 
ment be backed by dark-leaved, thickly set evergreens, having a more 
sparing, light-colored foreground. The interments of adults should 
be made more especially in reference to the principal monument. 
Smaller monuments and graves might be in other parts of the lot, 
but all in some relation to the principal, like children to parents. It 
might be pleasing to have the names of all the family on the princi- 
pal monument, while the names of each individual might be on a 
small monument at the head, or neat mural tablet laid over the breast 
of each, bearing his or her name, and encircled with flowers. This 
would be far preferable to the mounds or ridges usually raised over 
graves, now going out of repute — the even and well improved sur- 
face being more pleasing to the eye, easier kept in order, and the bet- 
ter protection from wet. The lower edges of the ridges are usually 
soft and pervious, allowing the water to insinuate itself at the junc- 
tion of horizontal with the vertical sodding. It may also be observed 
that the cardinal points of the horizon are seldom, if ever, observed 
w^here it is the object to display a correct taste, which is certainly of 
more importance. Why prefer the west for the head of a grave ? 

In respect to fencing individual family lots, when a Cemetery has a 
good outside fence, a watchful police, and a community of any dis- 
cretion, may be pronounced as useless, expensive of construction, 
selfish in appearance, and unsightly encumbrances to grave diggers 
and funerals, and with but a good outside fence and no police ought 
to be dispensed with altogether. They afford no protection from the 
ruthless, if we could imagine any in a Cemetery. To admire a lot 
fence, you must contract the sight of your eyes, and ideas of j'our 
mind, and fix them solely on some ginger-bread Avork, displayed on 
some part of the fence. Whereas, in Cemeteries, such useless work 
of mere trades, and repetitions of the same patterns, ought to be re- 
moved, when there, to protect residences, and those of the arts' and 
variety introduced, so that the beauties of nature and art may bear 
a strict and pleasing relation, before the expanded sight of your eyes 
and ideas of your mind. Monuments and shrubbery are both pleas- 
ing and useful, if they represent art in its higher perfections and na- 
ture in its natural dress. Hedges around lots, excluding both light 
and air, from both within nnd without, are worse than open fences. 



REPORT OF ENGINEER. 23 

They look still more selfish. The shrubbery which forms them, is 
forced out of its natural beauty, and becomes a burlesque upon both 
nature and the lot owner, as well as a drawback upon the restincr- 
places of our friends. 

I have seen fences costing, say four times the prices of the lots 
they enclose, and all the monuments and other improvements on 
them. I see neither religion, morality nor good taste in lot fences. 
How much bettei- would it have been to put all that spare cash out of 
the way of the grave digger and the scythe, as well as funerals, in an 
elegant monument and other useful improvements, ornamental to the 
whole grounds, or in building an impregnable iron fence around the 
whole domain ! Metal and rustic seats are pretty and useful appen- 
dages to lots, as well as the finer kinds of trellis work for trainino- 
creeping and flowering shrubs Upon. But seats inside of a lot fenced 
up, looks too selfish to be thought of, saying to the thoughtful, " You 
may faint of fatigue, but you must not sit on me. Avaunt ! you are 
no kin to our folks." Beautiful works of art and flowers inside of a 
lot fence, say to me, ''You are a Vandal, my master thinks. You 
have not good sense. Were you to come near enough to us to catch 
our odor, or see our beautiful petals, and observe our fine natural 
shapes with a good look, we know you would clutch us and ruin us, 
and hence our master puts a jail wall between you and us, with 
locks and bolts, to keep 3'ou out. You have no business with a good 
view of master's finery, though the walks to us inside of the lot are 
all shells or gravel, for favored feet alone, and as useless as the 
ideas that suggest them." 

It might not be amiss to mark the shape and size of lots with a 
curbing of stone, or, better still, a hedge of dwarf box, lilies, dafodils 
or pinks. Lots thus surrounded would not be trespassed upon half 
so much as those under lock and key ; for there is a disposition in 
the human constitution to disobey useless resti-ictions. It has been 
sensibly remarked, that the usual repetition of fence posts in some 
Cemeteries, looks, at a little distance, as if there had been a great 
pestilence among the little ones. They look like the rule of such 
places, and the Cemetery built for their accommodation, while the 
monuments and other improvements are the exceptions in appear- 
ance, the mere accidents and adjuncts. 

With the pious labors of the talented and accomplished landscape 



24 OAK DALE CEMETERY. 

gardener of Spring Grove, near Cincinnati, lot fencing is going fast 
out of repute there. It is, however, feared that the selfish interests 
of the iron mongers and hedgers will long protect the absurd and 
useless practice. I own a lot in a badly fenced and worse managed 
Cemetery at Cincinnati, older than Spring Grove. I spent much 
time in trying to mend the rotten fence to keep the hogs out, and at 
last was compelled in self-defense to fence a part of it, to protect the 
remains of seven loved ones lying there, trusting the unoccupied part 
to improvement in the economy of the Association. 

In addition to the foregoing recommendations, I would suggest that 
for the present, you reserve from sale, except in groups to Societies, 
all the societary lots and four sctions at each entrance, viz : 50, 51, 
67, and 68, at South Entrance, and 55, 56, 62, and 63, at North 
Entrance, keeping them (until they shall be actually needed for se- 
pulture) as lawns, groves and meadows of beauty and usefulness. 
I also propose the reservation of lots 28 in section 26, 14 in section 
39, and 19 in section 40, for purposes specified on the maps and 
charts, and that they be furnished suitably thereto. Also, that 
Monument Dell be surrounded with an evergreen hedge, to seclude it 
from the surrounding grounds and ways, and the center furnished 
suitably to the design intimated. Also, that section 64 be surrounded 
with a thorn hedge, to separate it from other grounds, and devoted 
to the Coroner's use. 

Having examined many sets of rules and by-laws for the regula- 
tion of Cemeteries, their owners and visitors, I find them much alike 
in the different Cemeteries, and that those adopted in the Hamilton 
Cemetery, in the hands of your Secretary, are about as good as any 
I have seen. Let me say, it will be well for you to enact no laws 
but such as are needed, and which you intend shall be carried out 
unwaveringly. Enact none in the wiry edge of patriotism, to fall 
dead on your statute books, to the weakening of your power to en- 
force others that ought to be observed. I have ever found rules re- 
quiring visitors to purchase entrance tickets pefectly nugatory, as 
very little experience proves that persons decidedly improper as vis- 
itors usually prefer grog-shops and places of sport, to annoying those 
who, for higher motives, visit Cemeteries. I recommend that a reg- 
ister be kept at the gate, in which each visitor may be expected to 
enter his or her name and residence before entering the Cemetery. 



/' 



HEPORT OF ENGINEER. 



ZO 



It remains now for me, in conclusion, to assure you of my contin- 
ued desires and prayers for your individual and combined pros- 
perity, in the good work of refining the taste, elevating the standard 
of morality, and exalting the religious feeling of community — bene- 
fiting the living, and doing justice to departed worth. May the souls 
of every one whose tabernacle of clay shall be laid in Oak Dale, ap- 
proach their change in brilliant hopes, and be found at last at the 
right hand of their Judge and in bliss, glorifying his name forever ! 

Yours, truly, 

J. SHOEBRIDGE WILLIAMS. 



RULES MD REGULATIONS 

MADE BY THE TRUSTEES OF OAK DALE CEMETERY. 



' Enclosure of Lots. — The Trustors do not recommend the enclosure of lots, 
but will allow it, provided they are not stone or brick walls, or wooden fences ; 
and if a railing of iron, or posts and chains, or a hedge, it must be placed on 
the lot itself, and must not exceed three feet in height. 

2. Vaults and tombs are not recommended, but will be allowed, subject to 
such additional charge and rules and regulations for the same, to prevent nui- 
sance, as may be determined upon by the Trustees. 

3. All graves for adults must be dug at least five and a half feet deep, 
and for children at least four feet deep. 

4. Interments will not be allowed without a permit from the Secretary, to 
whom payment for the digging of the grave shall be made when the permit is 
issued. 

5. The foundations of monuments that may be erected on lots, shall be at 
least as deep as the graves. 

6. If any monument, vault, tomb, effigy, railing or other structure, or any 
inscription be placed in or upon any lot, which the Trustees shall deem offen- 
sive or improper, they shall have the right, and, after notice given, it shall be 
their duty, to enter upon said lot and cause such improper objects to be re- 
moved. 

7. In the erection of monuments, vaults, tombs, railings, or other struc- 
tures, a place will be designated by the Superintendent for the deposit of 
stones, brick, or other materials, which shall not remain longer on the ground 
than is necessary for the construction of the proposed structure or improvement. 
The materials must be taken to and the rubbish removed from the place of using 
the same, in such manner as to do no injuiy to other lots, or to the walks and 
avenues. 

8. All graves shall be dug by the Superintendent, or workmen under his 
employment. 

9. It shall be the duty of each proprietor to put up, and keep in permanent 
repair, land marks of the boundaries of his or her lot or lots, under the direc- 
tion of the Superintendent. It shall also be the duty of each proprietor to keep 
in reasonable and fair order, his lot, and the improvements thereon ; including 
trees, shrubs, walks, grass plat, railing, hedge or other enclosing structure, 
and tombs, vaults, and monuments. If grossly neglected after notice, he shall 
be liable for any expense incurred in keeping the same respectable. 



RULES AND REGULATIONS. 27 

10. If any tree or shrub, situated on any lot, shall, by means of its roots, 
branches, or otherwise, become, in the opinion of a majority of the Trustees, 
detrimental, dangerous or inconvenient to adjacent lots, -walks, or avenues, the 
said Trustees shall have the right, and it shall be their duty, to cause such 
detriment to be removed. 

11. The Superintendent is expected to attend every interment, and see that 
the rules, regulations and strict proprieties of the place be observed. 

12. In all cases of interment, a statement, giving the name, place of nativity, 
residence, age, disease and occupation, of the perso^i to be interred, together 
with such remarks as shall be deserved, shall be handed to the Secretary, whose 
duty it shall be to record the same. 

13. Charges. — All interments will be subject to the following charges, for 
the services of the Superintendent in digging the grave and attending at the 
interment : 

Opening and closing graves five feet long and upwards $2 50 

Opening and closing graves under five feet 2 00 

For every foot of depth exceeding rule 3, per foot extra 50 

Opening eacii vault or tomb for interment 2 50 

Opening and closing receiving vault each time 50 

One dollar per month, and the same for any fractional part of a month, will 
be charged for each coffin deposited in the receiving vault. 

For single interments, in grounds appropriated for that purpose, $5 for 
adults, and for children under twelve years of age, $3 ; which includes digging 
the grave and dressing the same. 

14. No coffin shall remain in the receiving vault more than two months, 
unless by special permission of the Trustees, and, in all cases where required, 
satisfactory security must be given for the removal of the bodies. 

15. Horses must not be left loose, nor must they be fastened to trees. They 
must be either held, or fastened to posts provided for that purpose. 

IG. No running, jumping, or other sports or levities, or any thing incompati- 
ble with the proprieties of a Cemetery, will be, in any case, allowed. 

17. No person will be allowed to drive or ride over, in any way, any parts 
of the grounds, excepting the avenues and such parts as may be designated 
for such exercise. 

18. The use of fire arms will not be allowed in the Cemetery. 



RESOLUTIONS. 



1. Rksolved, That we reserve from sale all the lots on sections 50, 51, 57, 
58, 55, 56, G2, and 63, until needed for interments, excepting Kenton Square, 
and tbe societarj- group on section 56. 

2. Resolved, That we reserve all the lots within the circle of Kenton 
Square, and all the societary groups, from separate sale for the term of ten 
years. 

3. Resolved, That we reserve from sale lot 28 in section 26, lot 14 in sec- 
tion 39, lot 19 in section 40, and the central circle in Monumental Dell, for pur- 
poses designated on the maps and charts. 

4. Resolved, That we reserve the cenotaph lots in the Chapel and vault 
yards, for monuments and mural tablets, commemorative of such as may not 
have their remains deposited in Oak Dale. 

5. Resolved, That we set apart sections two and three, bounded on the 
west by Urbana Avenue, and on the north by Eastern Avenue, for the inter- 
ments of and sale to colored persons exclusively, and that no other lots be sold 
to them. 

6. Resolved, That we reserve from sale and set apart lots No. 5, 10 and 15, 
in sections 2 and 3, and lot No. 10 in every other section of the corporation 
grounds, for the purposes of sale for single interments, unless the same is herein 
otherwise disposed of. For the purposes of distributing successive interments 
apart, agreeably to the principles set forth in the Engineer's report, we resolve, 
and hereby direct, that the first single interment of a colored person be on lot 
5, section 2, and the second on lot 10 of section 2, thus placing one interment 
upon each of the six lots reserved for that purpose ; and that the first single 
interment of a white person be on lot No. 10, of section 4, the second on lot No. 
10, on section 6, and so on, till each lot so reserved shall have one inter- 
ment. The second interments in these respective lots to commence and pro- 
ceed over the entire respective grounds, in like manner and for the same pur- 
pose of the first, and so on with the third, &c. 

7. Resolved, That we set apart section 64 for the Coroner's uses, in the in- 
terment of the subjects of death by accident, by violence, and by causes un- 



RESOLUTIONS. 29 

known, uuder the injunction that the first interment be in lot No. 1, the second 
in lot No. 2, <fcc., as above directed for single graves in the corporation 
grounds. 

8. Resolved, That sections 1, 8, 15, 16, 22, 23 and 30, be set apart in the 
township grounds for present sepulture, reserving the remainder as a grove or 
lawn until actually needed for sepulture. 

9. Resolved, That interments in the township grounds commence with lot 
'No. 1, section 1 ; the second be on lot No. 1, section 2, and so on, distributing 
successive interments throughout the seven sections, always keeping the inter- 
ments apart for purposes above alluded to. ■ 

10. Resolved, That we will discourage the building of family vaults and 
lot fences in Oak Dale ; also, the setting up of high, thin head and foot stones 
to graves ; encouraging neat mural tablets, laid horizontally, and level graves, 
ornamented with flowers and monuments. 

11. Resolved, That we will cause a register to be kept at the gate or gates, 
in which it will be expected visitors will enter their names and residence before 
entering the Cemetery. 

12. Resolved, That we will sell no lot or lots of the corporation grounds at 
a less price than five cents per square or superficial foot. 

13. Resolved, That we intend annually to increase the price of the grounds 
ten per cent, on the prices of the next preceding year. 

14. Resolved, That we have the grounds of Oak Dale solemnly dedicated 
to the uses of sepulture on Saturday, the I9th instant, at 10 A. M., and that the 
clergy of the town and township, without distinction of sect or party, be in- 
vited to conduct the services. After which, on said day, we propose to enter 
into the active operations of disposing of the lots for the intended purpose. 

15. Resolved, Lastly, we will from time to time make such rules and regu- 
lations as, by their strict enforcement, (which we intend,) shall carry out the 
objects of the corporation and township, to the advantage of the community 
and of lot owners, as well as the embellishment and security of the grounds. 

LEMUEL WEAVER, President. 
\V,v. V. MosGROVK, Secretary. 



THE DEDICATION. 



Oak Dale Cemetery, July 19, 1856. 

At a meeting of the Trustees of "Oak Dale Cemetery," upon 
their Cemetery grounds, this day, there were present, by invitation 
and in pursuance of public notice, the clergy of Urbana and vicinity, 
and a very large concourse of citizens. 

The services of the dedication of the grounds to the purposes of 
sepulture, were conducted under the exclusive control of the clergy, 
and in the following order : 

Singing, by the Rev. J. B. Findley ; 

Prayer, " " Aginbroad; 

Reading the Scripture " " D. Schindler ; 
Address and Dedication " " James F. Chalfant ; 
Benediction, " " L. H. Long. 

On motion of L. Weaver, it was 

Resolved, That a vote of thanks be returned to the clergy, for 
their cordial participation in the dedication of the Cemetery Grounds, 
and that a copy of the Address of the Rev. James F. Chalfant be re- 
quested for publication, in connection with the reports, &c., of the 
Trustees and Engineer of the Cemetery. 

LEMUEL WEAVER, President. 
W. F. MosGROVE, Secretary. 



ORATION 

AT THE DEDICATION OF 

OAK DALE CEMETERY, 

XJ PI B -A. 1^ -A. , OHIO, 

BY REV. JAMES F. CHALFANT, 

JULY 19, 1856. 



FelloiD- Citizens and Christian Ladies and Gentlemen : 

We are here this day for the purpose of doing an act which ought 
long since to have been done in this community — the act of dedicating 
a suitable and fitly prepared piece of ground to be the receptacle and 
depository of the remains of deceased friends and neighbors — an act 
in harmony with the impulses of humanity, in almost all its various 
phases of development, but pectdiarly in harmony with the sensibili- 
ties and impulses of our nature under the refining hand of Chris- 
tianity. 

At a very early period in the history of the race, we find great 
pains-taking, on the part of the great and good, to bury with honor out 
of their sight their dead, and to have marked the resting places of 
loved ones with some fit testimonials of remembrance and affection. 
As long before the Christian era as we live subsequent to it, a hus- 
band, of noble mien, with a stricken heart, was called to look upon 
the cold and lifeless form of one who in health was so remarkable for 
her beauty, and so amiable in her character, that she was considered 
the loveliest of her sex. "Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty 
years old ; these were thp years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah 
died. * * * And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to 
weep for her. And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and 
spake unto the sons of Heth, saying: I am a stranger and a sojourner 
with you ; give me a possession of a burying place with you, that I 
may bury my dead out of my sight. And the children of Heth an- 
swered Abraham, saying unto him : Hear us, my Lord. Thou art 
a mighty prince amongst us ; in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy 
dead. None of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that 



OZ OAK DALE CEMETERY. 

thou mayest bury thy dead. And Abraham stood up and bowed 
himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. * * 
And he communed with them that they might give him the cave of 
Macphelah, and he said, I will give money for the field ; take it of 
me, and I will bury my dead there. * * * And the field and 
the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a posses- 
sion of a burying place by the sons of Heth." 

In the case of Jacob, after an eventful career, full of the romance 
of life, in a strange land and amidst a strange people, full of years 
and honors that came from God, he called his sons, and, in accor- 
dance with a time-honored custom, pronounced upon them his part- 
ing blessing. "Having blessed them, every one according to his bless- 
ing, he charged them, saying unto them : I am to be gathered to my 
people ; bury me with my fathers, in the cave that is in the field of 
Ephron, the Hittite ; in the cave that is in the field of Macphelah, 
which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham 
bought with the field of Ephron, the Hittite, for a possession of a 
burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife ; 
there they buried Isaac and Rebecca, his wife ; and there I buried 
Leah. * * * * And when Jacob had made an end of com- 
manding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed and 
yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people." 

Not only in sacred — which is the oldest and best authenticated 
history we have — but in profane history, do we find exhibited this 
regard for the departed, and this laudable desire to surround their 
resting places Avith such tokens of affection and evidences of pleasing 
and hopeful remembrance, as to make it a becoming retreat, in hours 
of serious thought and solemn devotion. Amidst the errors of 
idolatry and superstition, which have so fatally victimized the vast 
majority of the human family, this respect for the departed forms a 
pleasing and redeeming feature ; it as an oasis in the desert — a beau- 
tiful island, full of fresh-water fountains, in the midst of the salt 
ocean. 

History informs us that the custom of burying the dead in public 
places prevailed among the most ancient nations — the rites and 
ceremonies, in many instances, being of the most striking and im- 
pressive character ; characterized, it is true, as we will see, in many 
instances, by far too much ostentation and show, insincerity and hy- 
pocrisy, now to be encouraged, or even tolerated ; but at the same 



ORATION. 33 

time showing the existence in the bosoms of men, generally, great 
consideration and respect for the dead. 

The Romans, in their early history, had the custom of burying 
their dead in public places. Subsequently, when that mistress of 
the world was at the zenith of her power, the custom obtained of 
burning their dead, and burying the ashes, collected in urns. 

The Jews sought out caves and hewed out sepulchres in solid 
rocks, in one of which, " wherein never man before was laid," the 
body of Jesus Christ was deposited. 

The Egyptians and Greeks erected over the graves of men of rank, 
and persons who by any means had rendered themselves illustrious, 
pyramids or temples. At a subsequent period to the one named 
above, the Romans also adopted this practice. At last it became al- 
most a universal custom to provide the resting place of the dead with 
a stone, upon which was inscribed at least the name of the deceased, 
and the wish, "May he rest in peace," " Sit ilia terra levis," "May 
the earth rest lightly upon him." This custom obtained, and was 
preserved by the Christians, having been transmitted in some degree 
to the present generation. It is, however, a melancholy truth, that, 
too frequently, in even this Christian land, the home of the dead is 
an unprotected, uncared-for common, only mowed by sauntering 
sheep and village milch cows, with no blooming rose, or emblem ev- 
ergreen, to relieve with hopeful thoughts the wildness of the waste — 
the walks of which lie over the slumbering bones of those who, only a 
few days in the past, were full of life as we, but now are forgotten, 
and whose resting places are marked by no emblems of affection or 
respect. 

The ancient Germans buried their dead in groves consecrated by 
the Priests. It is said in the Enc. Americana, to which work we are 
indebted for much of our information on this subject, that several 
Catholic church yards in Germany are greatly distinguished by the 
taste displayed in beautifying them. Of one, in particular, it is said 
every grave in it is covered by a bed of flowers, which the relations 
of the deceased water, from a fountain dug for the purpose. 

Imagine the transfer of the lifeless bodies that now sleep in the 
village grave-yard to these beautiful grounds, varied as they are by 
knoll and plain — studded as they are with native oaks, the vigor 
and comparative youthfulness of which forcibly impress us with a 
passage in Sacred Writ, which stands in the midst of the subject of 



34 OAK DALE CEMETERY. 

death. It is said : " Turn from man, that he may rest, until he 
shall accomplish as a hireling his day. For there is hope of a tree, 
if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender 
branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in 
the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground, yet through the 
scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant." 

Thus it would seem it has been with these youthful oaks. And 
in some sort the same may be said of man ; though he die, and we 
bury him out of our sight, yet there is a seed of immortality in him. 
So that to the question, " If a man die, shall he live again?" we 
may give a confident and emphatic answer in the affirmative. 

"Death in Adam, life in Christ, the curse hung upon the cross !" 

We say, let us imagine those bodies reposing in peace beneath these 
ample shades — in dale, on knoll and slope — and every grave a bed 
of flowers, planted by hands which are bone of the bone and flesh 
of the flesh of those which lie mouldering beneath the sod — watered 
by springs which flow from the well-springs of aff'ection, deep in the 
hearts of sorrowing friends. With these grounds presenting such a 
scene, who would not love to ramble here — who would not come 
here to shed the tear of affection or sympathy, and amidst clustering 
remembrances of the virtues of the dead, lift their hearts to God in 
holy prayer for such baptisms of His Spirit as would prepare them 
for life or death ! 

But let us pursue a little farther the customs of those who have 
gone before us. 

With the introduction of the Christian religion, consecrated places 
were appropriated for the purposes of general burial ; and it was re- 
garded as ignominious not to be buried in consecrated grounds. 
A deprivation of the rights of burial was therefore a part of the 
punishment of excommunication. 

After the introduction of Christianity, small houses, called chapels, 
"Vfere erected over the dead. Perhaps, as a higher mark of distinc- 
tion, the earlier Christian martyrs were buried in caverns, which by 
degrees were enlarged to spacious subterranean vaults, and called 
chambers of repose ; then it came to be esteemed the highest honor 
to have one's bones repose near those of the martyrs. 

As early as the fourth century, the practice obtained of building 
churches over the sepulchres of the holy martyrs, and from this evi- 



ORATION. 35 

dently came the practice of burying under and erecting sepulchres 
in churches. 

The Emperor Constantino, who died in A. D. 337, was the first 
who ordered his sepulchre built in the church. 

The practice was condemned by the Emperors Theodosius and 
Justinian, but in vain. It was again legalized by Leo the Philoso- 
pher. Strange to say, unhealthy as this practice was, besides indi- 
cating not a little vanity and some superstition, it was not until the 
present century that it ceased to be done. 

The human mind, ever prone to extremes, from these early prac- 
tices, which may have had much of fitness and propriety in them at 
the time of their institution, was led from one degree of superstition 
to another, in reference to the dead and their sepulchres, until a re- 
action took place — the Roman Catholic Church carrying out in ex- 
tendo many of those superstitious notions, and consecrating with 
holy water every burying place. 

On the other hand, the Protestant Reformers, anxious to show 
themselves opposed to every thing like Catholicism, have permitted, 
until within the last few years, their burying grounds to be most un- 
justifiably and even shamefully neglected — not even inaugurating 
them with any kind of religious services. 

We are happy to see this undue sensitiveness in reference to the 
dedication of burying grounds in some degree corrected. While we 
most devoutly pray to be saved from superstition in reference to this 
matter, we as sincerely hope that in future the subject will receive 
more attention than in time past, and that becoming religious services 
will be uniformly performed on the opening of new Cemetery grounds. 

Let us pass from the consideration of the subject of the places of 
interment, to dwell, for a short time, upon the ceremonies accompa- 
nying such interments ; not that these ceremonies should be our 
standard, but a brief review of them may not be unprofitable, by 
way of suggestion. 

Among the Hebrews, as soon as the last breath was drawn, the 
eyes were closed, and the nearest relative impressed the farewell 
kiss ; then followed the rending of their garments, which was never 
omitted ; then the binding up the face, which it was unlawful again 
to look upon ; then the washing the body with warm water ; and 
then its embalmment in ointments and perfumes ; after which fol- 
lowed the mourning by the real and hired mourners. The Egyptians 



36 OAK DALE CEMETERr. 

were much better skilled in embalming than the Hebrews, many evi- 
dences of the perfection to which they had arrived in the art having 
descended to our own day. 

It would seem, too, that the Hebrews learned much in reference 
to the subject from the Egyptians. Josephus gives us an account of 
the burial of Herod the Great, in which, he says, the bed was 
adorned with precious stones — his body resting on a purple covering 
— a crown of gold on his head — a sceptre in his hand — and the pro- 
cession followed by five hundred of his domestics, carrying spices. 

Professional mourners were employed from a very early day. We 
find them among Hebrews, Egyptians, Hindoos, and Mahometans ; 
among the two last named, the Hindoos and Mahometans, they are 
employed, I believe, even to the present day. Something exists, also, 
though in a modified form, of the same kind, among the low Irish of 
the present generation. And a recent writer says the practice still 
continues in certain parts of Germany. 

This singular practice, the origin of which I am at a loss fully to 
account for, we find existing, too, among the Greeks. Thus Homer, 
in the Trojan war, makes a choir of mourners stand around the couch 
of Hector, who sung the funeral dirge with many sighs and tears : 

"A melancholy choir attend around, 
With plaintive sighs and music's solemn sound ; 
Alternately they sing — alternate flow 
The obedient tears, melodious in their woe." 

From these historical facts, it would seem that, under all the de- 
basing influences of idolatry and sin, in their worst forms, among al - 
most all nations, so7ne sort of solemn services have been observed in 
the interment of the dead, and monuments of some kind have been 
erected to mark out the place of their silent dwelling. Even amongst 
the native inhabitants of this, our own beautiful country, who came 
here by what means and at what time no man knoweth, have, 
in the artificial mounds spread all over these valleys, left us the most 
lasting monumental evidence of their respect for their dead. May 
our appreciation of the living, and honor for the dead, be equal, at 
least, to theirs. 

Many and profitable may be the uses of a Cemetery ground, be- 
side the security and protection it affords to the remains of the de- 
parted. Once, the cold forms now silent in death, and lying in their 
narrow houses, were full of life as we ! From their strong arms and 
wise counsels, we secured protection, and were guided safely through 



ORATION. 37 

the dangers of life's pathway. And surely it were a small return 
for us to make, for such kindness, protection, support, love, and ten- 
der affection, as we have received from their hands when full of life, 
that we render secure, and beautify with emblems of attachment, 
their silent resting places, after they are gone. 

We plead not for the rich and sculptured marble, for monuments 
of gigantic proportions, extravagant, and in disproportion to the 
merits of the objects commemorated ; but we do plead for an ex- 
pression of affectionate regard toward those with whom it hath 
pleased the Great Author of our being, in the order of His provi- 
dence, to connect us, by the ties of nature, or otherwise ; and whom 
it hath pleased Him, in His wisdom, to remove off the theatre of 
life before us. We plead that this should be done, by such security 
and adornment of the spot where their remains are deposited, as will 
at once be strikingly honorable to the survivors and respectful to 
the dead. 

There is a natural sentiment in the bosom of man, as a general 
rule, strong in proportion to his cultivation and refinement, that, 
after life's silver cord has been loosed, his resting place may be in 
some quiet, sequestered retreat, removed at a proper distance from 
the bustle and conflicts of active life, where, in the language of an- 
other, " he may not be jostled in his narrow house ;" but where the 
emblems of truth and divinity may surround him, in all their native 
simplicity and grandeur — where God breathes through the leaves of 
the undisturbed forest-trees and smiles in the blooming flower ! 
Such may this place be 1 

Is there a heart here to-day which does not give a hearty re- 
sponse to the sentiment : " Let my grave be where the violet 
blooms early in spring ; where, in mid-summer, the sweet-briar 
will be seen ; and where, laden with dew, the woodbine will shed 
its perfume." And when the earth shall be locked in the cold em- 
brace of winter's icy arms, and the snow-flakes unspotte'd and 
bright shall cover her face, let my grave be where no unhallowed 
foot-print shall soil the spotless garment in which God hath clothed 
it ; but let it lie in its cold and pure beauty, until, at God's com- 
mand, it shall go down into the earth, to enrich, and make more vigor- 
ous, in their resurrection, those emblems of a better resurrection, 
that may there have been planted by the hand of affectionate regard ! 



38 OAK DALE CEMETERY. 

We find much of this sentiment beautifully expressed by one of 
America's favorite poetical sons — Bryant : 

" I gazed upon the glorious sky, 
And the green mountaiu round, 
And thought that when I came to lie 
Within the silent ground, 
' Twere pleasant that, in ilowery June, 
"Where brooks sent up a cheerful tune. 
And groves a joyful sound. 
The Sexton's hand my grave to make. 
The rich green mountain turf should break." 

We are deeply conscious, and need hardly be reminded of the 
truth, that living we are dying — each successive pulse leaving 
but the number less — or, as Longfellow expresses it : 

" Our lives are rivers, gliding free 
To that unfathomed, boundless sea — 
The silent grave. 

Most of US, too, doubtless, joyfully receive the glorious doctrine of 
the Resurrection : a doctrine, not the child of philosophy, but above 
it — the direct offspring of God ; a doctrine which it was the pecu- 
liar province of Revelation to make known ; the reception of which 
is not so much the result of a process of reason, as an act of faith ; 
the reception of which is taking God at his word ; a doctrine which, 
reposing on the infinite wisdom and omnipotence of God, laughs 
at what Philosophy calls impossibilities. 

It is true, that man's body will turn, in the language of a living 
English author : 

" Dust to dust ; it mingleth well among the sacred soil ; 

It is scattered by the winds ; it is wafted by the waves, and mixeth with 
herbs and cattle ; 

But God hath watched those morsels, and hath guarded them in care ; 

Each waiting soul must claim his own when the archangel soundeth. 

And all the hills, and all the fields, shall move a mass of life ; 

Bodies numberless, crowding on land, and covering the trampled sea ; 

Dark'ning the air precipitate, and gathered, scatheless, from the fire ; 

The Himalayan peaks shall yield their charge, and the desolate steppes of Si- 
beria ; 

The Maelstrom disengulf its spoil, and the iceberg manumit its captive : — 

All sh^ll teem with life — the converging fragments of humnity — 

Till every conscious essence greets his individual frame ; 

For, in some dignified similitude, alike, yet different in glory. 

This body shall be shaped anew, fit dwelling for the soul : 

The hovel hath grown into a palace, the bulb hath burst into the flower ; 

Matter hath put on iucorruption, and is at peace with Spirit." 

Though all this we believe, and it all be true, who is there to 
whom it is not a pleasing reflection that all his limbs will go down 
into the grave together ! And to what mind is it not a painful re- 
flection, that one portion of his physical organism, so wonderfully 



ORATION. 39 

made, displaying in its symmetrical proportions the wisdom of God, 
is to be buried beyond the roll of old Ocean's wave, another beneath 
her coral reef, and yet another in some lone and unknown village 
church-yard ! This same feeling, which seems to be natural, exists 
not only in reference to the members of our own bodies, but extends 
with equal force to the members of our families. What sight more 
impressive than that of a family who harve been happy and loving in 
all the multiform cares and responsibilities of life, and, having served 
their generation, have passed away, and now lie, side by side, a voice- 
less family in the grave-yard ! What scene more sublime to the 
contemplation than that of the united and harmonious resurrection of 
this family, when the voice of the archangel shall make all humanity 
stir afresh with Divinity ! 

The existence of this feeling in the human family, proclaims that 
the work of preparing these grounds was one highly praiseworthy 
and commendable. 

Not only from considerations of the kind mentioned above, 
but from those of a higher character — from high moral consid- 
erations — is the work that these Trustees have done, and we are 
now doing, one worthy of your commendation and encouragement. 
Nowhere, outside of the Gospel by which this world is to be con- 
verted, can the living generation find richer treasures of thought 
and meditation than amidst the homes of the dead. 

" Here are the wise, the gen'rous and the brave ; 
The just, the good, the worthless, the profane ; 
The downright clown, and perfectly well-bred ; 
The fool, the churl, the scoundrel and the mean ; 
The wrecks of nations, and the spoils of time ; 
With all the lumber of six thousand years." 

Here slumbers, in stillness, the tyrant ; his shrill tongue now silent 
in death. And here, 

" The loaded slave flings down his burden 
From his gall'd shoulders." 

Who, among such a throng, could not — would not — lessons of 
wisdom learn ? It has been well said, " That heart which does not 
seek communion with the grave, and dwell with calm, and even 
pleasurable meditation on the change which Nature's great ordinance 
has decreed, has laid up but scant provision against the weariness or 
the perils of this world's pilgrimage." " Measure not thyself by thy 
morning shadow, but by the extent of thy grave," is the solemn 
invocation, which the departed spirit whispers into the ear of the 



40 



OAK DALE CEMETERY. 



living man. The tomb is a faithful counselor, and may not wisely 
be estranged fi^om our view. It tells us the great truth that Death 
is not the Destroyer, but Time ! It counsels us that Time is our 
FRIEND or FOE, as Ave ourselves fashion him ; and it warns us to 
make a friend of Time for the sake of Eternity. Let tliis in- 
struction be oft-repeated, and planted deep in cur minds. 

It is the earnest prayer of' your unworthy servant, that many of 
you, in future days, as you tread these walks, seeking quiet and 
relief from the toils and conflicts of life ; as through these leafy 
bowers you wander, with meditations serious and mournfully pleas- 
ing ; that, as you pass from grave to grave, your eye meeting here 
the stately monument, the commemoration of worth — there the 
humble slab, the token of aflfection — and yonder, the evergreen, 
emblem of immortality ; that, as you pluck here, and there, a 
flower, or stop to shed a tear over the grave of an infant that died in 
its loveliness, a tender wife, a fond mother, a noble father, or a faith- 
ful husband : your faith may lay hold on the promises of God, so 
firmly as that the Holy Spirit shall impart to your hearts the triumph- 
ant assurance : " I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall 
stand at the latter day upon the earth ; and though, after my skin 
worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." The 
corruptible having put on incorruption, and this mortal having been 
clothed with immortality — an 

" Immortality -wbicli o'orsweops 
All pains, all tears, all time, all fears — and peals 
Like the eternal thunders of the deep 
Into the ear, this truth — Thou liv'st foeevee." 

And now, Thou Eternal God, standing amidst these clustering 
oaks, in this " vestibule of the spirit world," the future home of 
many around us, for the sake of Him who laid in the grave and 
"left there a long perfume," we beseech Thee to lend a listening ear 
to us. We now, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost, Dedicate these Grounds to be a Burying Place. 

May those whose bodies may be buried here, repose in hope ; and 
in the morn of that great and awful day, when the slumbering na- 
tions shall be awakened into life, may they come forth, triumphant 
over the grave, to hear the welcome plaudit of the King of Kings, 
and Lord of Lords : "■ Well done, good and faithful servants, enter 
into the joys of thy Lord." And to Thy great name shall be all the 
praise. Amen ! 



Ill ii^.m I in., I I ' ■ 



*t*)^ "t* ^' ' ^ ' ' ^ ' Y '"" ' ^ " ^ 



y 

b 
ir 
tl 
h 
e 
fl 
it 
fl 

a 
s 

C 
C 



/ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRES 



014 750 725 2 



